GatorDeb

Then what's the issue in MS making Starfield exclusive, that it owns the studio and the machine?

Noonan

It's literally in the article posted.

GatorDeb

Each platform has exclusitivity, look at Nintendo and the Switch. I don't get what the big deal is about MS making exclusive games. Sony does it. Nintendo does it. Why can't MS?

Noonan

They do. No one cares that Halo or Forza is exclusive. This has to do with MS buying a huge gaming studio which has always developed for both platforms, promising the FTC they won't make all of that studio's games exclusive, yet now that's exactly what they seem to be doing.

MS has basically bottomless pockets. If the FTC didn't care, they could buy every game studio and stop every game from being on PS or Switch.

GatorDeb

I know what the article is saying but I don't think that's what what happened, I think MS said they wouldn't make Blizzard exclusive, Bethesda was already a done deal, and now Sony's like see see they're gonna do it to Blizzard too!!

Noonan

Well if you don't believe the article, you're certainly not going to believe anything I say so I'll stop here.

Dan

Source? Where did MS say they weren't going to make any ZeniMax games exclusive?
In fact, one could argue that MS has done exactly what they said they'd do with ZeniMax, and therefore they could reasonably be expected to do exactly what they're saying they'll do with Activision/Blizzard/King, which is an entirely different deal with different parameters and agreements in place, no?

That's absurd, particularly because:
1. no game studio on the planet is obligated to take such an offer, and
2. MS is still in third place, and not even a close third. None of these deals are going to meaningfully impact Nintendo or Sony.

Anyway, remember when this thread was about a game coming out in September?

K&AJones

Well...look who is running it now, The Chairman/Person, makeup and what and whom they've gone after just this year alone will tell everyone why.....December 2022... FTC pushes antitrust enforcement power heading into 2023 | TechTarget

Noonan

Sure sounds like XBOX heads had the same idea.

Twitter

Dan

Did you read the actual email?
What do you think he’s actually talking about?
What other company is in a position to spend the way Sony spends on money hats?

Noonan

Yes, it's in the article. I think it means exactly what it says. If we buy enough content we can push Sony out.

There are also reports going around that Starfield wasn't even being developed for XBOX consoles before the purchase process started.

Dan

Not exactly. You (and I) are not seeing the email he was replying to. But if you read the full details, it sounds much more like he’s pushing for acquisitions, yes, but the focus is on spending money on bolstering subscriptions, day and date GP releases to be specific.
But that was in 2019, and some of that has come to fruition, and some has not.

the report is that Sony was trying to make a deal to pay Bethesda to skip Xbox, exactly like they did for Ghostwire and Deathloop. Because MS seemingly read the contracts after the companies came to an acquisition agreement, that told them to skip Xbox at the time in order to release the games on PS5.


Neither company is doing ‘good things’ here, to be clear, but even the FTC didn’t put much weight on this email exchange in their hearings, and they’ve been grasping at all sorts of straws. It’s just more clickbait for the IGN AI to write about.

Noonan

I have no horse in this race so my comments are purely based on what I've been seeing. I have a great PC so games being MS exclusive is no issue. I plan on buying Starfield day 1.

That being said, I've seen that report from other places as well. Not just IGN. It does seem like MS plan was/is to throw their money around to hurt Sony. It's not some new concept.

Dan

Actually, according to a statement sent to The Verge, MS says it wasn’t about acquisitions at all.

Noonan

Of course they're saying that. They're currently under investigation. lmao

Why So Blu?

I don't think it's been mentioned but apparently the game being sold at retailers like Amazon, etc., will not even have a disc. It's a digital code in a case or some shit. That's supposedly across the board.

Music

The standard edition has a disc.

Starfield "no physical discs" confusion cleared up by Bethesda (trueachievements.com)

Dan

‘hurt’ how? In a streaming market that was still in its infancy (arguably still is) that Sony didn’t have much stake in, in 2019…
I haven’t seen claims that MS has been paying companies to never put games on PSNow…

Sony throws their money around to ‘hurt’ the competition, as the market leader, in ways that could arguably be considered more anti-competitive than any outright acquisition. Their contracts, just like MS’s contracts, should be heavily scrutinized. If the claim is true that Sony explicitly makes contracts that tell publishers they cannot release high profile games on Xbox / Game Pass in order to release/market them on PS5, that’s kind of a big deal.

Noonan

We're literally in a thread about a game that fits this description. Wasn't in dev for XBOX consoles. MS decides to buy the whole publisher. Now the game is XBOX/PC only and MS is under investigation by the FTC. What are you missing?

Why So Blu?

Cool, had not seen that yet.

Dan

Yes, that’s how acquisitions and mergers work. What are you missing?
there is a massive difference between making a mutual agreement with a publisher to acquire their assets, making them a first party studio, and writing a contract that forces a third party publisher to skip a platform in order to release on their own platform.
MS is not ‘under investigation’ for the ZeniMax acquisition. It was approved quickly and without much push back from regulators, and MS has done exactly what they told regulators they’d do with ZeniMax games thus far, including some being exclusive, and some not.
The ‘gamers lawsuit’ is a joke.
The FTC hearings are about delaying the acquisition of Activision, but their evidence thus far is pretty weak. Even the CEO of Sony said it won’t hurt them, and they’ll be ‘more than fine’ if MS succeeds.

“wasn’t in dev for Xbox consoles” is not accurate, from what I’ve seen. That early in the development stage, it doesn’t even make sense. Seems more to be that Sony approached Bethesda, a third party, to skip Xbox midway through development, just as they paid them to do for Ghostwire and Deathloop. One rumor was that Todd Howard was the one who let MS know that shit was going on.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Decker

Just a gentle reminder that we DO have a thread discussing the Microsoft acquisition of Activision/Blizzard where this topic of discussion would be much more appropriate.
https://forum.dvdtalk.com/video-game...ispreloading=1

Music

Hey! You're not our mod! lol

Dan

Sure. Regarding Starfield, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony just said in court, he doesn’t believe exclusivity of this game is anti-competitive, even if he doesn’t like it.

reminder that he tried to buy exclusivity of the game to destroy Xbox, but they beat him to it by making an agreement to buy the company making it.

K&AJones

both sides in the past have always tried to get various games as exclusives or say one year before the other side gets it....I don't like it personally either but in the case of Bethesda, they should've remained neutral for the sake of all platforms considering their Game Library with Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc....sure M.S (XBox) and PC Players are thrilled and yes Playstation Players are left out, but in the end just who does that really help and hurt...and overall, they be a lot of lost possible revenue....but $7.5 billion is no laughing matter...then again Sony bought Bungie who is working on a new IP soooo.......just wish they all just shake hands and let games cross over and everyone would be happy...